Multi-booting OSes

[The Great Destroyer]

alright guys, this is something i've been wanting to try for a while now. i want to install 4 OSes onto one drive (w/ 4 partitions of course!) right now i have 64bit XP on an IDE drive and Win7 on a SATA drive, and i get an error message after the POST screen, i'm assuming because its reading conflicting MBRs. so what i want to do is install 64bit XP (main OS for gaming and such), Win7, 32bit XP (for certain programs that refuse to run in 64bit), and i'd like to try ubuntu.

has anyone tried running more than 2 OSes, and is it even possible? anything i need to be aware of?

[SXRguyinMA]

I'm running XP 32, Vista Ultimate 32 and Win 7 32 off of one drive, each on its own separate partition. I tried it with dual drives and it wouldnt work for me. I installed them all onto a single drive, one OS on each partition, and at bootup it asks you which one you want to boot into

[The Great Destroyer]

i figured out what my error message problem was. the IDE was the original drive in the computer, but after i installed the SATA drives, it set them at a higher priority, so as soon as i switched that, i stopped getting the error message.

another thing i've been having problems with is with 32bit XP getting BSOD'd when i go to install it. it'll load up all the drivers to prepare for the install, but then it crashes at the end. i'm not sure if my disk is bad or (and this is a wild guess) if its just a result of trying to install a 32bit OS on a computer thats already running a 64bit OS.

[The Great Destroyer]

alright, i got 32-bit XP installed on one of my other partitions, and copied the partition with 64-bit XP onto another partition with GParted. i booted up the PC and got the "cannot find ntldr" message. i fixed that and got a boot.ini error. i followed the instructions on microsoft's site, but it didnt fix anything. i'm at the point where i'm about ready to wipe my drives and do a clean install of everything.

[SXRguyinMA]

thats your best bet

[The Great Destroyer]

i ended up just installing x64 over the old partition. i got the XP bootloader, but it wont show Win7. and i went to reinstall that, but my cheap DVD decides to go out on me and reads as empty... if it werent for boredom and free time, i wouldn't have bothered with this project. but what the heck, i'm halfway done now!

any input on linux OSes? right now i've been told Ubuntu or Mint.

[nevermind1534]

i ended up just installing x64 over the old partition. i got the XP bootloader, but it wont show Win7. and i went to reinstall that, but my cheap DVD decides to go out on me and reads as empty... if it werent for boredom and free time, i wouldn't have bothered with this project. but what the heck, i'm halfway done now!

any input on linux OSes? right now i've been told Ubuntu or Mint.

Windows 7 and Vista use a different bootloader than xp. I googled install xp after vista, or something like that, and found a way to install the vista/7 bootloader after xp is installed.

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

Mint is ubuntu based is it not? and trying to get 7 to boot properly from the XP menu wouldnt work... XP has a legacy boot loader...honestly.. if you want to do this in a slightly more difficult way... install all your windows first... dont even worry about booting..
and once ya got (64/32/7) installed throw on your flavour of linux.. and use grub. great bootloader.. lots of options :) will also let you boot from other drives... of any type of connection (sata/IDE)

[Zeroignite]

You have to install the OSs from oldest to newest. The Win7 bootloader will recognize an XP install, but not vice-versa. I don't know about Linux.

[x88x]

One thing you will need to be wary of is that most (if not all) hard drives are limited to 4 primary partitions (keeping in mind that all logical partitions on a drive are housed inside a single primary partition). Because of this, since Linux needs a swap partition (usually logical), when you install Linux you'll want to have it install to an LVM (Logical Volume Manager), which creates a primary partition containing all required partitions inside as logical partitions. This will let you have each Windows version on its own primary partition (Windows gets cranky when you install it to a logical partition), then have the LVM on the fourth allowed primary partition. As for a Linux distro, I would definitely highly recommend Ubuntu, both for it's wide hardware support through incorporation of closed-source and third-party drivers, and it's large, active user base. As for order of install, as has been mentioned, Vista and 7 use a different boot loader than XP, and Grub will override them all, so I would recommend installing in this order:
XP's (shouldn't matter which order they're in) -> 7 -> Linux

If you use Ubuntu's 'alternate install' disc, it will give you the option to use an LVM (which is not an option given in the normal install disc).

As a side note, considering the reasons you have mentioned for wanting some of these OS's (primarily 32-bit XP and Linux), I'm wondering; have you considered virtualization? That way you could have access to all the OS's without having to reboot, and if you use an integration feature (like VMWare's 'Unity' or VirtualBox's 'Seamless Mode') then the applications can be pulled out of the VM window and behave as if they are running in the host OS.

[sloppyc]

A general rule of thumb when multi-booting Windows OSs is to install the oldest version first, newer versions will generally find the old ones and add them to the bootloader.

However, if you've already got them installed and you just can't boot, and aren't ready to learn the ins and outs of GRUB yet as you seem not to be an experienced Linux user:

1. Boot from your Vista disc. You should get to a screen that asks you to install. Look below the big install option for some other options. When you choose to repair, you'll get some more options, one of them will scan for Vista and fix its bootloader.

2. Google "Easy BCD." Download and install it. From there you'll be able to modify Vista's bootloader to load other OSs, like your XP installation. You can even point it to Linux partitions to boot them, too.

3. If you do install Linux, towards the end of the installation, you'll have an option to install GRUB somewhere other than the master boot record (MBR). Choose to install it to your /boot partition.

4. Boot back into Vista and add your Linux install to Vista's loader via EasyBCD.